Saturday, March 05, 2005

the-story-of-my-experiments dept.

I am an hopeless eccentric. The one or two people who know me, and many who claim to know me will testify to this. I have my own pet likes and dislikes and although I try to maintain a facade of disinteredness in all controversies, truth is, I'm as much a fanatic as the next guy. Maybe a wee bit more.

My pet peeves? Astrology (ooh, don't get me started), blind ritualism, tribalism in urban life (I don't believe anyone quite understands what that one exactly is), and social inequality (which I am prepared to discuss extensively and know that my inclination to put my money where my mouth is is absolutely zero).

I absolutely detest astrology and astrologers, to the point where I sometimes fear I shall resort to violence when the 'believers' begin to stonewall all logical arguments against this absolutely unscientific art. Most astrologers are flatterers, liars and great manipulators -- in short, extremely disagreeable people, and I try to stay away from them as much as I possibly can. You see, if you think scientifically, sure, astrology may have validity as a possible area of scientific research, but then you see it being practised, or rather, people being practised upon, and then you know that human nature is too fundamentally flawed to allow astrology to become a purely scientific pursuit. It has been, is and will always be a political tool.

Well, there have been a spate of deaths in my family and many of my clansmen/women (some of them very well educated, and apparently, very suave and urbane) actually want my family to appease the supernatural powers-that-be with some mindless pagan rituals. An aunt said, "Well, you know, not that I believe in them, but people just talk". I asked her to name the people who will talk, I will personally go and bash their brains in. Needless to say, this gentle approach does not win me many friends. I have begun to slowly garner the reputation of being an unreasonable hothead, and I see people being somewhat circumspect when round me.

Which brings me to the third topic, which is more a fact than some anomalous human behaviour. Human beings like to congregate and settle into specific kinds of hierarchies and social patterns. Useful to create systems where the individual does not have to think. Now, I have been raised in many places, and never have had the chance to enmesh myself in these 'social grids'. So it frustrates me to see people not willing to think outside this box they confine their minds to. And then there's the problem of language! The language becomes rife with symbols drawn form the grid (peoples, their experiences together, etc.), and then it becomes impossible for an outsider to join in.

And that leaves social inequality. All well-to-do young men have a soft-corner for the underdog. Well there is no shortage of underdogs in my fine country.

As we know,There are known knowns.There are things we know we know.We also knowThere are known unknowns.That is to sayWe know there are some thingsWe do not know.But there are also unknown unknowns,The ones we don't knowWe don't know.